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Sir Richard Branson ‘attacked’ by stingray and door on holiday –
Sir Richard Branson had a holiday to remember, for all the wrong reasons, after he was injured by a stingray and then a bullet-proof glass door. The Virgin billionaire said he had been “in the wars” in the Cayman Islands, admitting his holiday “didn’t quite go to plan”. “We were surrounded by stingray, as well as stunning coral reefs and tropical fish,” he wrote in a blog post. “But the rays were feeding all around, and they mistook yours truly for their food. Suddenly I felt a painful sensation on my wrist – they have one heck of a painful kiss! Rays are actually part of the shark family, so I’ve now been kissed by a shark. Getting stung by a ray is meant to bring seven years good luck but it didn’t bring much for Branson who then had an unfortunate run-in with a glass door. “As my anniversary was coming up, I popped into a local jewellery shop to look for a gift for Joan [his wife]. I strolled purposefully into the shop, not noticing there was a glass door in my way. Crash!” he explained. “I hit the glass head first and I got this painful cut above my left eye. It was bullet-proof glass! We quickly set up a makeshift operating theatre, where I was given three stitches. [Daily Telegraph]
Richard Branson tweet

Indonesia wants gay-themed emojis removed –

Indonesia wants social networking sites to remove any emojis representing same-sex couples, it’s reported. One popular messaging app, Line, has already dropped all LGBT-themed emojis, after saying it had received complaints from users. Now the Indonesian government is asking major players like Facebook and WhatsApp to follow suit and remove the icons for users within the country, the Republika newspaper reports. “No social media may show items that smack of LGBT. Because we have our own rules, like religious values and norms, which they must respect,” information ministry spokesman Ismail Cawidu is quoted as saying. Homosexuality is legal in Indonesia, but prevailing conservative attitudes in the Muslim-majority country make open discussion of sexuality controversial. Mr Cawidu did not specify what would happen if companies refused to remove the emojis. [BBC]

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• Northern Mali conflict
  • An attack by suspected Islamist militants on a MINUSMA base in the town of Kidal, northern Mali, kills at least five United Nations peacekeepers and injures 30 others. (AFP via Al Arabiya) (Reuters)
• Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
  • A Libyan Air Force MiG-23 is shot down over the city of Benghazi as it conducted airstrikes on Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries positions in the coastal city. A Tobruk-based military source said the pilot survived having parachuted to safety, but his whereabouts were not immediately clear. (AFP via Yahoo News)
• Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
  • At least five policemen are killed in an attack on a police station in Aden. (Daily Times)

Business and economy

• Evgeny Lebedev, the owner of the British national newspaper, The Independent, announces that as of March 2016, the 29-year-old paper will only publish online with print editions coming to an end. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• 2016 Taiwan earthquake
  • The death toll from the earthquake rises to 94 with 550 people injured, and at least 30 more missing and believed buried in the apartment complex rubble in Tainan. (CNN)

International relations

• Syrian Civil War
  • John Kerry, the United States Secretary of State, says that a meeting of 17 ministers in Munich has agreed to a ceasefire within a week and delivery of humanitarian assistance beginning immediately.(Reuters via ABC News)
• East–West Schism
  • Pope Francis meets with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow in Havana, Cuba. It is the first time that the heads of the Roman Catholic Church and Russian Orthodox Church have ever met. (CNN)
• North Korea–South Korea relations, North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
  • The discontinuance of electricity and water into the Kaesong area impacts area residents who lose their steady supply of water. The public received about 60 percent of the 17,000 tons of water South Korea pumped north each day. (AP via Fox News)
  • China has announced it will back a United Nations resolution to make North Korea “pay the necessary price” for the recent rocket launch. (Reuters)
  • The United States deploys an additional Patriot missile battery to South Korea in response to North Korea‘s recent rocket launch. (The Japan Times)

Law and crime

• Pakistan arrests 97 people allegedly involved in terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi who were allegedly plotting a variety of attacks including a plan to get Daniel Pearl‘s killer out of prison. (Reuters via Channel News Asia)
• Two people are killed on the campus of Independence High School in Glendale, Arizona, near Phoenix. The campus is on lockdown, but there is no active shooter situation any longer. (The Arizona Republic)

Politics and elections

• Stuart Robert, Australia’s Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and for Human Services, resigns for breaching ministerial standards during his 2014 business trip to China while Assistant Minister for Defence. (AP)
• South Sudanese Civil War
  • Salva Kiir, the President of South Sudan, appoints rebel leader Riek Machar as Vice President in a bid to end a two year civil war. (Bloomberg)
• 2016 United States presidential election
  • Jim Gilmore suspends his campaign for the Republican Party nomination. (The Guardian)

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